Campaign Blog -- Day 28

Elizabeth May

August 31, 2015

Knocking on doors I am hearing a question I just cannot answer – “why are the other parties not talking about climate change?”

I cannot answer for them. It is surrealistic. All summer long we have watched the climate news – out of control wild fires, severe drought, and now for Vancouver Island and the lower mainland – extreme high winds, devastating damage and loss of power. Tonight the US faces a hurricane “double threat.” And then we move on to the political news.

The political news covers the latest attack ads. The political news tells us where the major party leaders have been today. But the “political news” does not connect with the climate news.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama is heading to Alaska for a three day tour of the climate emergency. Tomorrow in Bonn, another round of climate negotiations begin to better prepare the ground for the upcoming climate summit in Paris (COP21). All of this should be central to the Canadian election campaign.

I just cannot answer the question—why and how are the media and the major parties ignoring the climate crisis in this election?